SECRET WRITTEN FROM INSIDE A SHARK'S MOUTH
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It wasn’t all booze and inching toward death.
Love lived there, too. It came sharp and vanished quick.[1] One summer, he re-roofed the house by himself. After hammering down the felt underlayment, but before starting the shingles, he called for me to come admire his handiwork. There, scrawled in bright white chalk across the entire width of the roof: “I ♡ YOU, JEANANN!”[2] and above it, him, balancing on the high pitch, a beer in his fist, broad grin spreading[3] across his sweat-streaked face. Each piercing white letter now buried beneath layers of slate for decades to come,[4] reminding whomever next pries loose those shingles exactly to whom I belong. |
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1. Shark teeth are lost at a rate of at least one per week and can be replaced within a day of loss.
2. Shark teeth are most frequently lost when they become stuck in prey and break or are forced out.
3. Shark teeth nest in rows of 5–50, like a conveyor belt.
4. Shark teeth fossilize after the remainder of the body has decomposed.
1. Shark teeth are lost at a rate of at least one per week and can be replaced within a day of loss.
2. Shark teeth are most frequently lost when they become stuck in prey and break or are forced out.
3. Shark teeth nest in rows of 5–50, like a conveyor belt.
4. Shark teeth fossilize after the remainder of the body has decomposed.
SECRET WRITTEN FROM INSIDE A CROCODILE'S MOUTH
Some take kickboxing classes or learn
to shoot firearms or move cities altogether.
I started wearing sports bras[1] to sleep.
to shoot firearms or move cities altogether.
I started wearing sports bras[1] to sleep.
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1. Reptiles of the Crocodilia order have an exoskeleton of bony scutes that serve as armor.
1. Reptiles of the Crocodilia order have an exoskeleton of bony scutes that serve as armor.
Jeanann Verlee is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow and the author of two books, Said the Manic to the Muse and Racing Hummingbirds, which was awarded a silver medal in the Independent Publisher Awards. Her third book, prey, was first runner-up for the 2016 Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award and will be published by Black Lawrence Press in 2018. She is a recipient of the Third Coast Poetry Prize and the Sandy Crimmins National Prize, and her work appears in Adroit, Yemassee, BOAAT, and BuzzFeed Reader, among others. Verlee wears polka dots and kisses Rottweilers. She believes in you. Find her at jeanannverlee.com.